Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

Ian Hutchesson wrote:

> [...] Were there or were
> there not names with an Asherah component? That's what interests me.

Is "Asherah" to be taken as a proper name in the true sense? It means 
something like
"blessed" or "fortunate" or "sacred" or something like that. It seems to be a 
descriptive
title more than an actual name. For that reason, you might not find the name 
as a
theophoric element in personal names. It might be a little like someone today 
calling
their daughter "Blessed Virgin" rather than "Mary" (not the best parallel, 
but it makes
the point)

Best regards,
George Athas
 Dept of Semitic Studies,
 University of Sydney
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